Unlockable bootloader, yes. Officially supported ROM without Google Play Services, absolutely not.
I see you defending Google around here. That's fine but a grand-grand-grand...-parent of yours was saying that AOSP is unusable, and that point still stands and is true.
AOSP derived ROMs without gapps are pretty much "nothing Google". Unless you count AOSP itself as "Google", which it kind of is I guess, but it's not Google proprietary.
Every time I saw a build on XDA that was AOSP it required google play services, ofc there was some hacking you could do to get the open version working but it wasn't nearly as smooth or easy and definitely not the default
you can theoretically run AOSP, but Google will do everything in its power to make life miserable for you. most people generally run Samsung, pixel, or Apple
exactly, recently android was developed in a way that it's impossible to disable some core services which are directly associated with google services, so AOSP as such is almost impossible to exist separately from google.
Ofcourse You can make Android device without google.
AOSP is open source and google can't prevent You from using it.
What google can prevent you from using though, it's all the 'feels like core android but actually is google proprietary' stuff. That's what the whole Huawei battle was about.
On my Google Pixel 3a, I can download AOSP to my own computer, modify it how I wish, scrape the vendor dependencies I need[1], compile it myself, sign it myself, and use my own key to control what OS gets installed, then relock the bootloader so it only trusts updates using my key! I can choose not to use Google Play and then install whatever App I want on it.
I wish I could not have to use any proprietaryy binaries, but this is as close to an open device that you can get today [2].
[1] This is where the quasi defense comes in. AOSP has no official process to install all of the vendor binaries needed to support carriers. If you don't include this process you get broken SMS, Calling, WiFi Calling. This script helps you do it:
https://github.com/GrapheneOS/android-prepare-vendor
[2] Yes I know of the Librem 5. I am a day one backer and have yet to get a shipping notification despite shipping starting in Sept. I also know of the Pinephone, it is not publically available. I await the day those types of products are viable.
Your defining "Google" more narrowly to mean "Google Play and Google services" (understandable as this is common shorthand), whereas I just meant Google the company. AOSP is a Google product and APK is maintained by Google.
Either way it's irrelevant whether any of it is or isn't technically "Google", my only point was that F-Droid do not make AOSP/Android. That's true regardless of your definitions.
You need to unlock your bootloader, install custom recovery (TWRP) and then install a custom ROM (I use LineageOS). It's optional to install Google into AOSP-based ROMs.
You can fork AOSP, which I'm sure can't run any of the top 10 apps of the Play Store unless you install Google Services, which are closed source and require a licence from Google (which in turn requires you to bundle Chrome, make Google Search the default, etc).
AOSP by itself is pretty useless because it can't run any of the apps the public is interested in.
AOSP has effectively been dead for a long time. You need Google Play services for almost everything now and more and more creeps into the proprietary portion.
That first article is poor and you're giving it as if it's a valid reference.
I have an older Nexus 4 that I keep around, with CyanogenMod installed on it and without Google's services, which is pretty much AOSP. Despite what seems to be popular opinion, it's quite usable. The big thing that is missing and the reason for why Google affords to keep mobile phone makers by their balls are of course Google Play, Gmail and Google Maps. You do have F-Droid and Amazon's app store. It's quite an interesting experience - if you have an Android lying around, try it out.
There are a number of phones that run AOSP without google service blobs. As for running a phone without driver blobs, well that was just a ridiculous question on your part.
You can cut google some slack though. They walk a fine line. You can use AOSP without any google play services. It works great. Sure, they won't make it easy, but something has to pay the bills. So things are in a very fine balance right now wrt AOSP. They also earn a bit of goodwill because, as I discovered recently, you can still use carddav, caldav, and xmpp for accessing google contacts, calendar and hangouts although google has officially deprecated all the open protocols. So they haven't gone full evil just yet.
I see you defending Google around here. That's fine but a grand-grand-grand...-parent of yours was saying that AOSP is unusable, and that point still stands and is true.
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